As I prepare for CampNaNoWriMo, which begins April 1st, I start to begin to try and curb all of the excuses that may arise that tend to keep me from sitting down in the chair to write. The one thing I think that I never seem to be able to get just the way that I want it is my writing area.

See my so-called office (pictured here below) is not really an office but more like a nice corner of my bedroom in which my desk fits really well as well as the mini bookshelves that surround it, and there’s a bulletin board sitting above the desk with list upon list of tasks and projects that need to get done. Of course there are also pictures of certain places that I want to travel to for inspiration of what I’m working towards. It’s a nice office for what I have to work with.

This is my not so dreamy office

But it’s not my dream office. My dream office is…well why describe it when I can just show you…

The office I would love to have

This is the office that I would love to be able to call mine. I’ve even started a Pintrest board with all of the different types of offices that I would not mind calling my own. However the picture above is my overall perfect office. This office, I could write in and you would probably have to drag me out to come up for air. What’s your idea of your dream office?

I was reading an email ezine that I subscribe to from Christina Katz this morning that got me thinking about the side of writing that I don’t often like to think about. That would be the business side of being a writer. It’s the side that has to eventually kick in if you really want to turn your creativity into your source of income and have the ability to make a living doing something that you love to do. Apparently it is the side that I haven’t figured out how to turn all the way on yet.

There are those who can manage being the creative person for a designated period of time and then switch on the business person when necessary for a separate length of time. Then there is me, and other writers like me, who just simply are not born business people. I am the creative person, not the business person. For as long as I can remember I never liked to deal with the business side of anything. But I think that was the fantasies of my younger writer self that just didn’t know any better.

Christina Katz spoke about writers who, when they are younger, have this big idea of being discovered and turned into an overnight success, living an ideal life free from all daily trials and tribulations. I was that writer. I didn’t think so then but looking back on that time now I can see that there were a lot of things about being a writer that I wasn’t factoring in. Things like hard work (on the business end), extreme work ethic, determination, and patience. One more thing I didn’t factor in was confidence. Not necessarily confidence in my writing (because I always knew that writing was what I was born to do) but confidence in the person writing those words, confidence in me.

I thought that I would just be discovered one day, that someone would read my words and feel that they had to be the one who discovered me. I thought that I would be under the umbrella of a major publishing house with a publicists and a person who did marketing professionally so that someone who knew what they were doing could get my name out there.

I imagined living in New York (Manhattan at that) at a young age, working for national magazines and newspapers, and being on the New York Time’s Bestsellers list. I imagined that by the age of 30 I would already have had a dozen or so books out, on bookshelves, or whatever else there was that sold books. What I didn’t imagine, was having to be the publisher, and the publicist, and the marketer, all for myself.

I mean you see it happen to other writers (or so you think because that’s how things appear) and you think why can’t that be me. The truth is that just because it seems like people such as Steven King, or J.K. Rowling, or Tyler Perry were overnight successes with no obstacles in their way, doesn’t mean that there wasn’t a great deal of the other side that went into that success. At some point there is a need to tap into that business side of the writer self.

I’ve been trying to avoid it for years now and it may have just been to my detriment but I have to stop fighting the business side of being a writer. In a perfect world I would love to just focus on my creativity and have my talent be able to stand for itself and propel me forward but that just isn’t a realistic ideal to cling to. I can’t just worry about figuring in time for writing and all of the creative projects I have in the works. I have to figure in the time to be my publisher, and my publicist, as well as my marketer. I have to be realistic in the fact that I can not be the writer who solely focuses on the creativity of it all without fully committing to the business of it all as well. Time to dismantle those younger writer fantasies I once had! Did you fantasize up the writer life in your mind?

Everything happens for a reason and at the time that it is supposed to happen. That is how the saying goes right? When frustrations set in about my slow (and I do mean slow) progression to writing success (and financial comfort ability) it is really hard to believe that there is any truth to that saying. Half of the time I want to say that it is really just how people justify having a bad round of luck and the walls just crumbling in around them (or maybe that’s just me). However, deep down inside I do know that there is actually truth to it.

When success happens later than you expect it to (or planned for it to) it gets frustrating watching people who are barely out of high school or college achieve success on a fluke or by a chance meeting with just the right person. Meanwhile you work hard and consistently at something that you have the talent to back up and it just seems like mountain after mountain just keeps forming right in your path. You get around one mountain only to be challenged with another.

You’re left wondering why this person can just snap their fingers and have all of what you’ve been working hard for years (and years), and where’s that person’s mountain. Sometimes success just seems to come so easy for some and so much of a struggle for others. I guess some people (myself included) are late bloomers. It can make a person just want to throw up their hands and say the hell with it.

When I think about it, there are a lot of people who didn’t become a success when they first started out. They struggled, stressed, and fought hard to get to their current place in life and it was a mountain to climb every step of the way. Just because success doesn’t come easy does not mean that it isn’t coming. There is a reason that some people have to go through more than others in order to accomplish what they set out to do. Blooming late sometimes just means that you are blooming in season.

The writer I was in my 20’s is not who I am as a writer now in my 30’s. Naturally I have grown, both in life and in my writing, but I have also been through things that have given me experience (and a little bit of wisdom) to be able to open up more within my writing. If I had gotten the level of success that I wanted in my 20’s I’m not sure that I would’ve known what to do with it, or how to handle it with the level of maturity that I could now or in the future.

There was a reason why it didn’t come to me then. I wasn’t ready for it, and I wouldn’t have been prepared. It just wasn’t the time. There is a reason why I haven’t bloomed yet but I do feel that the blooming is about to begin. Better late then never!

The other day I met up with a writing friend of mine who I hadn’t seen in a while and of course we talked about our perspective projects and how our impending writing careers were coming along. Neither one of us have gotten to where we want to be in our writing careers but both of us were full of excitement over our ideas of how we can possibly get there. I didn’t have my optimism cap on that day so while I was excited about my ideas, I wasn’t able to express as much hope of them coming to fruition as she had for them.

She actually said that listening to all of my ideas and knowing how talented I am as a writer, she could see dollar signs when she looked at me. She said that I have so many great ideas and such a wealth of knowledge to impart on others and she didn’t see why I didn’t see all of the potential income that was there for me. All I could hear inside my head was that little nagging voice that keeps telling me that none of it will ever work.

Despite the fact that I have seen others with ideas similar to mine and some not even as great as mine that were maximizing their ideas into a steady and stable income for themselves all I could think to myself was that it would never work for me. I don’t know what it is that creeps in and keeps feeding me the notion that I am not good enough and not as good as other writers out there but every so often there it is. It just keeps whispering all of the negative thoughts about myself that I have thought for most of my life and have been working tirelessly to get away from thinking.

Some days it’s harder than others to think the best things and to see in myself what others seem to see in me. When I finished meeting with my friend I did feel more energized and like I had more ideas than I did when I first sat down. The problem with me has never been coming up with good ideas, but rather bringing those ideas to life and displaying them for all to see. It would be nice to get to a point where I am just always confident in my abilities as a writer, as a business person, and to stop doubting and questioning myself.

I know that if I could get there, to that point of confidence, then things would flow easier and with less fear. It’s funny because people will say, “well if you know that that’s all you need to do is have more confidence then why don’t you just have more confidence so you can do what needs to be done” but it is a lot easier said then done. I think it is interesting just how many writers there are that actually question how good they are at what they do. It’s nice to know that it’s not just me. How is your writer confidence level?

I have always wanted to go on a writer’s retreat and had hoped to one day just be able to get away, even just for a weekend, and do nothing but write. Often times I think that a weekend away writing, with no phone, no T.V. (okay maybe not no T.V. at all), and more importantly no child. I thought maybe that I would want to do one of those group writing retreats but I think that that is probably not the right direction for me. That would provide yet another distraction, a group of people to talk to.

I’m sure everyone has their own idea of what their perfect writer’s retreat would be. It probably would involve some cabin in the woods or a luxurious resort tucked away on some remote island somewhere. All of that sounds nice but for me I think I know what the perfect retreat would be for me (and it might sound like the opposite of retreating). I want to go to New York, book a luxurious hotel suite in a room that overlooks the view of Manhattan.

I know that New York is said to be noisy and busy and most likely what most people want to get away from when they think of the word retreat. I think it might just be because I have never been to New York and ever since I was a little girl I have dreamed of going there and living there and forming my writing career there and it just hasn’t happened yet (I’m not completely giving up hope on that). I can’t seem to get there and at this point going would probably seem like a vacation.

People warn me away from New York like it is the worst place to be but then again those people usually aren’t writers. They also don’t typically appreciate the views and the life that New York has to offer a writer who wants to be immersed in the artistic world. For just one weekend I would like to go to the city that never sleeps, that has been my visual inspiration for a lot of my projects that have yet to be started, and that has been calling me since I was a little girl. That would be my perfect writing retreat. What’s your idea of the perfect retreat?

There is this big controversy right now about some lyrics in a newly released song from singer/songwriter Beyonce’. Some of her so-called fans (I say so-called because her real fans would understand that it is directed towards the people who are “haters” of her) are saying that the language in it is out of character for her, a little vulgar, and a little hypocritical because although she claims to be about women empowerment the lyrics seem to be pitting women against one another. Some fans also state that because of this new song they no longer see her as a role model for their young daughters.

Let me say first say that I am a fan of Beyonce’s singing (I think she has an amazing voice) and I am a fan of her business savvy, but I am not a fan of the image that she has come to display throughout the years of her success. Her fans say that they no longer see her as a role model because of the song but I am wondering why they are just now starting to not see her as a role model as opposed to when she started promoting the image to young girls that sex sells and that if you want to be more successful you have to perform half naked to do so. I personally felt that she was more of a role model when she began her career or the moments when she performed with her clothes actually on because she showed class.

After thinking about that controversy for a while it got me thinking about why it is that the entertainers who go around performing half naked and with looks that are way too eccentric for young ladies are what these young girls are looking up to. Why, when we have such successful women like Oprah Winfrey, Sheryl Sandberg, J.K. Rowling, or even First Lady Michelle Obama, are we choosing to allow our kids to look up to entertainers who don’t know how to present themselves in a way of class. That train of thought made me wonder even further, why aren’t we encouraging our children to see us, their own parents, as role models instead of some outsider that has nothing to do with how they actually turn out in this world?

Someone asked my daughter one day who she considered to be her role model or her hero and she turned to them and said her mommy. It was the most wonderful moment (particularly because I was having one of my “I can’t do this for my child so I must be the worst parent” days) for me and it made me proud and let me know that despite the days where I think I’m not doing a good job, maybe I actually am. Now I know that all parents, plain and simple, are just not role models and clearly their children are going to need someone to look to for guidance but shouldn’t we be teaching our children that success is not equal to how much clothing we can take off for attention, or even that wealth does not necessarily equal success (although let’s be honest, money would be nice).

We have to stop relying on these celebrities to be the guidance for our children. It shouldn’t matter what the lyrics of Beyonce’s new song is because that particular fan that said that it made her no longer consider Beyonce as a role model for her young daughter, should be striving to be her own daughter’s role model and not leaving it in the hands of a total stranger. We have to be careful what we are telling (and not just with words but also with our actions) our children success is because if we are telling our young girls that Beyonce is what equals success, we can’t then wonder why they start imitating her half naked image as a way to reach it. We can’t allow our young boy’s to listen to rappers and other music that degrades women and disrespects them and who have become successful doing so and then wonder why they turn around and grow up to do the same things.

We can’t just keep saying do as I say and not as I do anymore because our children are watching us. They are paying attention to who we are listening to and what we are doing and allowing and they are taking their cues from us. We have got to get away from having our children look up to some celebrity that they don’t know and get back to the days where our children are looking to us for the guidance they need.

I am constantly told that I don’t market myself well enough (not a good tooter of my own horn) and that I don’t promote myself as much as I should. So every now and then I think it would be good to promote myself and some of the things that I am working on. Of course lately the two biggest things I am working on are my novel (which I plan on finishing during CampNaNoWriMo), and my new magazine. Speaking of the magazine, the third issue was just released on Friday and since it is International Women’s History Month, I dedicated this issue to women and their strength, honor, and power of words. All of the material in the issue is by women and the author interview is with Ms. LaMonique Hamilton, a future media mogul, is my personal favorite. Here are a few other things I wanted to share:

Write 2 Be Magazine is Seeking Authors to Interview

Write 2 Be Magazine is looking for authors to interview and who would like to bring attention to their published work and discuss their journey within their writing career. Please submit all requests for an email interview to write2bemagazine@yahoo.com and for those who live in the DMV area, you can request a face to face interview if you would prefer. I look forward to being able to help bring attention to the work of more talented writers and poets, in particular those who are just getting started on their journey.

March Writing Prompt

Every month there will be a writing prompt that will hopefully get you thinking about the beginning of a new story. In particular I thought this would be helpful for those who struggle with how they are going to start their next story. Perhaps you could find a prompt that you spark the next novel on your list. You might even produce a short story that you would like Write 2 Be to publish in the next issue.

I have a few other projects that I have in the works, one being a collaborative project, but I am not quite ready to share and promote those just yet. Also I wanted to open my self-promotion posts up to any of you artists’ who have projects that you might want to share in the comments section. Feel free to let me and my readers know what you have coming down the pipeline, I’d love to check it out and I’m sure others would too!

I would love to say that it is easy to move past the blank screen and produce greatness (or at least a first draft towards greatness anyway). I have a real problem with people who think that writer’s block is something that is just another excuse not to write or a procrastination technique. Granted there are some who do use it as an excuse and they are not genuinely blocked, however, this does not mean that every person with writer’s block is not truly blocked.

I have been through moments where I have gotten up at the designated time, prepared adequately for the work to get done, and planted my butt in the chair for hours just waiting for the words to come. They didn’t come. For a long time they just wouldn’t come. Maybe it was because I was depressed at that time or because of stress, or maybe the project just wasn’t right for me, but for whatever reason, the words wouldn’t come. I tried the “just put the words on the page” method but when the words were garbage and didn’t produce anything of value then they just didn’t mean as much.

I know that there are people who say that you should write even if what you are writing is garbage but I don’t agree with that. It is a waste of energy that could be saved up to produce work that can actually be crafted and molded into something of purpose. Sometimes your mind just needs a vacation and sometimes you are just emotionally unable to tap into that creative resource for a small period of time (not saying that it is okay for you to remain in that state) and that is what I consider a writer’s block.

I don’t determine writer’s block as just being too distracted to put the words on the paper. That is just you needed to buckle down and focus. I don’t count you choosing to party all night so then you can’t get up to show up to produce the words as a writer’s block. That just means that you need to straighten out your priorities. I don’t count the excuse of having the words trapped up in your head because you haven’t figured out how to get it on the paper (and I have made this excuse many times) as writer’s block. That is just being a little lazy and making a lot of excuses.

Writer’s block, to me, is when the words just won’t come; the struggle is there, the determination is there, the priority is there, the focus is there, but the words still won’t come. I believe that writer’s block is a lot more about a person’s emotional state when they are trying to produce work. Yes writing is typically about letting your emotions fuel the words but when they instead block the words then there might be some deep seeded issues that they have to deal with.

Writer’s block is very real to me and maybe this person who wrote the blog post expressing their view that it isn’t may never have had the displeasure of experiencing it, doesn’t make it any less real. What are your feelings about writer’s block? Do you feel like it’s real or do you think that it’s a figment of people’s imagination?

There are a lot of things that you must be to make it as an artists’, particularly a writer. Patience, courage, diligence, and perseverance, those are just a few of the qualities that someone who goes down the road of creativity is going to need to possess. However, the most necessary quality, the one that you absolutely can not do without in the creative field, is resilience.

You have to be able to bounce back from whatever comes your way, no matter what. It’s not the way that you fall that matters, it’s the way that you pull yourself back up. Think about the stories that you hear of the people who have succeeded. What’s the most memorable thing about their story? It’s the struggle that they went through to get to their success.

From J.K. Rowlings state of poverty and her dozens of rejections before she became one of the world’s richest women with her Harry Potter Series, to Tyler Perry’s homelessness and empty seats in a theater before owning his own multi-billion dollar production company. What you remember just as much as the way that they succeeded is what they went through to get there.

I was watching the television interview that actress Valerie Harper (from The Mary Tyler Moore Show) gave on the Doctors show the other day when she came on to discuss her diagnosis of terminal brain cancer. She wanted to show to the rest of the world that she was okay and that while she remained realistic about the time given to her (3 months to a year) to live, she also has not given up hope.

I watched in awe, and not just because I loved her on The Mary Tyler Moore Show and The Rhoda Show and I think she’s awesome, but because she was just so brave and so inspiring. I don’t know that I could be smiling if a doctor told me that I have a limited time left to be on this earth.

She said one thing (well there were many) that really stuck with me, “don’t go to the funeral before the day of the funeral.” That applies to every aspect of life but just as a writer, as someone who thrives off of creativity, I had to apply it to the artists’ world. You know that there are going to be rejections, but let’s not claim that rejection before it happens. There are going to be moments of defeat, but before the moment that we are defeated, let’s not live in that defeat.

There will be disappointments, times when our expectations aren’t met, both by other people and ourselves. There are going to be struggles so hard that we are going to assume that we can’t get past them, moments when we want to just throw up our hands and say I surrender. Those are the moments that we have to remind ourselves of why we are doing this in the first place.

We’re waiting for that yes, for that feeling of being on cloud nine because everything we ever imagined for ourselves is finally becoming a reality. That is what drives us to continually getting back up and we have to keep reminding ourselves of that. We must keep getting back up. We have to live in the moment that is now so that we can keep reaching for the destiny that awaits us. Let’s not ever forget, even when we are being told no, that there is a yes waiting if we keep getting up. Getting knocked down is inevitable, let’s just remember to always bounce back!

Have you ever had that one idea that has stayed in the back of your mind for years and that for one reason or another you just never brought to a reality? I’ve had this business idea for a while now (I’ll share what it is at another point in time), something that will help to further my brand and that writers and book lovers everywhere would love, and something that could help to add to my income.

I was really excited about it when I first thought of it and in many ways I still am but what dimmed my excitement a little is the fact that I started to put all of the negatives I have going against me into play. For this idea I would need a business loan, and for that business loan I probably would need better credit. Those are the two biggest things stopping me from going ahead with my idea but there are other things too, such as will people actually like it, would they come to it, would I really make as much income as I think it has the potential to bring, will I market it right, and mostly what if I screw it all up somehow.

My best friend, Ms. L. told me the other day that I shouldn’t let those negative stop me and that it is an idea worth going after (and if you knew her you would know she will let you know when something is a bad idea) and that I should go for it. I’m excited about the idea again just envisioning it in my head but I am still a little worried about all of the barriers that can present themselves.

Is there a point where you should just know that something is outside of the realm of possibility? Or is there nothing that is outside of the realm of possibility unless you deem it that way? Do you have any big ideas that your internal barriers are keeping you from going after?